Plans for new cycle and pedestrian bridge over the Thames

A shortlist of three locations has been published for a new bridge across the Thames being designed exclusively for cyclists and pedestrians.

Situated between Vauxhall and Chelsea road bridges, the new footbridge aims to improve connections across the Thames with the mass of new tower blocks going up around Nine Elms and Battersea.

The current design, which hasn’t been finalised, is for a couple of corkscrew spirals at either end leading up to the bridge across the river.

Cllr Ravi Govindia, Leader, Wandsworth Council says that “A bridge specifically designed to carry pedestrians and cyclists will be a first for central London,” seemingly having forgotten about the “wobbly” bridge at the Tate Modern.

Although there are three options being offered, the favoured location would be facing directly to the new US embassy, as analysis by TfL in 2013 found this location to be likely to be the best in terms of people using the bridge.

Funding for the bridge is also still to be raised, and although £26 million has been secured from the developers putting up all those towers in Nine Elms, the estimated cost for the bridge to be built is somewhere in the region of £240 million, leaving a sizeable shortfall to be filled.

Public exhibitions will be held on both sides of the River Thames in November, and if approved, then the council will announce a final location in 2019, with construction starting in 2022.